Teardrops On My Guitar
by tommyxloser
Summary: Best Friends for Never sequel.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary:** Sequel to Best Friends for Never. Much has changed in the drama-filled lives of the teens of Tree Hill. With Haley across the continent, Peyton and Jake at NYU, and Lucas, Nathan, and Brooke at Duke, still on the East Coast, she was sure that their friendships had dissipated. Or at least that was what she thought before Brooke convinced her to move to New York after her college graduation.

* * *

_I've been down the wrong road tonight  
and I swear ill never go there again  
I've seen this face once before  
and I don't think I can do this again_

**-Three Doors Down**

**Haley** was throwing clothes absently around her dorm room, not caring where they fell or if they were wrinkled or not. She didn't care at all. All she wanted was for things to be normal. She wanted the life she had worked so hard to achieve to come back. She wanted to be able to say that she had gotten the full college experience without any regrets. But she couldn't say any of that. She couldn't say that she was happy. She couldn't say that she was in love. She couldn't say that she had made any life-long friends. She couldn't say that these were the best years of her life.

She felt like that ship had sailed before she even stepped foot on the college campus four years before. She crumpled into a ball on the carpeted dorm room floor, her shoulders rocking with the sobs that were filling her body.

She must have sat that way for a good quarter of an hour, tears streaming down her face in agony, when her roommate opened the door. Claire was all smiles and bubbles, but at the sight of her trashed room and hysterical roommate, the smile fell from her face like the crack of thunder (not that you saw that much in California). She quickly fell to her knees in front of Haley, pushing the girl's curly blonde hair from her tear-stained face. She was shocked by this Haley. She had never seen outgoing, loving, crazy, bubbly, smart, Haley, sobbing in all the years that they had been roommates.

"Haley, honey, what's wrong?" Clair was the kind of person that you could count on. She never had anything bad to say, and she was there for you when you needed a shoulder to cry on; but Haley never let herself cry, much less use someone else's shoulder to do it on. She was a pre-psych major, so she knew how to listen and when to say something that was encouraging and when to give tough-love.

"Everything. I don't know why I came here. I don't know why I stayed. I don't know anything." She sobbed into the crook of her friend's neck, her legs strewn at odd angles around her body, and her hands shielding her face from view.

"Haley, I don't know what's the matter, but you're the smartest person I know." Haley just sobbed louder at her friend's words. This was the only true friend she had found in the past four years. All the others were just as fake and plastic as they had been in high school. But Haley couldn't blame them, could she? She had done the same thing, saying that she was 'reinventing' herself, when really she was throwing on a Brooke mask and calling it a Haley.

"But that's the thing. I'm smart. I should have been smart four years ago and gone with my gut, and not with what my parents would disapprove of. I should have done what made me happy. I shouldn't have left him. I loved him so much." Just the thought of _him_ made her heart stop beating for a second.

"Who? Jason?" Jason was Haley's boyfriend. The guy she should be sobbing about; but of course she wasn't. There was only one man on the face of the planet that could make her so happy and so sad; and he was nowhere on the Stanford campus. He was nowhere in California. He was nowhere on the west coast. He was in the place that she loved, and the place that she should be right now, if not for the place itself, then for the boy that made it the best place in the world.

Haley just shook her head and wiped her tears, ashamed that she had let herself breakdown. The last time she had done that was four years ago. She had held it in for so long, she wasn't even sure what it felt like to be happy; but she knew that this wasn't it. She removed herself quickly from her friends embrace and crawled to her bed, climbing into it and wrapping the blankets around her like a protective shield.

After that she just sobbed as quietly as possible into her pillow, replaying pictures in her head, trying to remember what happiness felt like; and trying to remember what it was like to feel anything.

Claire was completely confused. She wasn't sure if she should press the issue further, or if she should let her friend wallow in her own self pity. She decided on the latter when she saw the way Haley was trying to muffle her sobs so she wouldn't hear them. She knew that Haley was strong, but she was afraid that if she didn't get whatever this was, out of her system, she might kill herself slowly from the inside out.

* * *

**Haley **was awoken from her dreams of the past by an insistent jingling noise coming from near the foot of her bed. She looked over to the bed that usually housed her roommate, but only found an empty bed with a small 5x4 sheet of paper pinned to the pillow.

She untangled herself from her thick quilt that seemed unnecessary in the California heat, and stumbled to the bed across from hers still wearing the clothes she had worn the day before. Her jeans were rumpled, and her shirt wrinkled, but she didn't care, just like she didn't care that she had stepped on more than half her wardrobe as she walked across the small room.

She took the pin out of the pillow, and picked up the note. It had her name written across the front in frilly cursive that could only belong to two people she knew, and only one of them would be in her dorm room.

_Hales,_

_I went to Brad's for the night._

_I hope you feel better._

_Try getting some rest and not worrying about classes. We're done with finals. All that's left is graduation. _

_Don't let the change affect you._

_Much love & kisses_

_Claire_

"BRRRDDRRRR"

The jingling sound filled the room again. That annoying sound that had woken her from her dreams filled with love and happiness that she hadn't felt since then. She was going to murder whoever was dumb enough to be making that noise at 7am.

She followed the jingling to her desk, and searched through her papers, trying to find anything capable of making such an annoying sound. She was interrupted from her search by a repeat of the sound. It was coming from her open laptop.

**New E-mail from: Brookiee3**

The message was flashing across the screen with that insistent dinging that was starting to give her a migraine. She opened the message, waited for it to load, and started reading, deciding that she wouldn't kill the person who was making the noise after all. She loved Brooke too much.

**From: Brookiee3**

**To: Haley-bub23**

_Hales,_

_I got a call from Peyton the other day. She said that her graduation is next week! I am so excited that I think I might burst! All of us are officially adults once we get those diplomas (and don't give me that crap about legally being an adult when you turn 18, because I say you're an adult when you finish all the schooling crap). But I'm going up to NY today because, guess what? I'm moving in with Peyton! I know! I'm so excited! I'm going to be living in the biggest city in the country! No more little butt-crack town Tree Hill (just kidding; I love Tree Hill). _

_Anyways, Lucas and I are going up there later today after our graduation ceremony is over. I was kind of hoping that Lucas would ask me to move in with him, but you can't have everything, right? Lucas already has a roommate anyways; it came with the apartment apparently. _

_Now all we need is you. Get your cute little ass on a plane and out here as soon as possible. There is a third bedroom in the apartment Peyton and I are living in. We had to pay about double the price of a two-bedroom to have that third, so you better be here by the end of the month to pay rent._

_I love you Hales. Always and Forever, remember?_

_Brookiee._

_P.S. I downloaded your new single on myspace! Go Haley Jay! I don't know how you got into all that recording stuff, but I requested it on the Duke Radio and now I have the whole campus addicted to you! You'll be a huge star, yet! _

Haley took a deep breath and started throwing things back into her closet. Even if she did choose to go to New York to be with the people she loves, she couldn't leave before graduation. That was only three days away though; she'd have to make a decision fast. Not that she had any other place to go. She could stay in California and get that apartment with Jason that he had been talking about; she could go back to Tree Hill and live with her parents for a little while until she got everything figured out; or she could go to New York and be with the people she loved the most in the world, minus one vital person.

She knew she had to choose, but right now, she just wanted coffee; and maybe a gas station counter's worth of chocolate.

* * *

**Haley** sighed, and threw her cheerleading uniform into her last suitcase. She couldn't believe that she had actually finished college. It seemed like just yesterday she was walking down the halls of Tree Hill High with her best friend standing next to her (or making out with him in the janitors closet, either way). _No. Don't think about him. You haven't seen him in a long time. You'll kill yourself if you keep thinking like this. He probably has a new girlfriend and a new life where he doesn't need you. _

Haley's thoughts had drifted to Nathan Scott more than a few times over the years, and even more in the past few weeks; but she would quickly rebuff them and tell herself that they had a good year, and it was fun while it lasted. They had tried the whole 'long-distance-relationship' thing, then it turned into 'long-distance-friendship', and then turned to calls and e-mails every month or so. They had changed too much, and been too far from each other for their relationship or friendship to stay intact.

She absentmindedly fiddled with the long skinny chain that hung from her neck, sticking her index finger through the small circle, tracing the edges with her other fingers.

She took a deep breath as she picked up her smaller suitcases to take out to her car. Her mind was still planted firmly on four years before, not watching where she was going as she walked blindly through the halls that she could maneuver in her sleep. She exited the sorority house and walked to her small car, trying to figure out where she was going to go once she was finished packing all of her things into her red VW beetle. She still hadn't decided where she was going. The thought of making that decision scared the hell out of her. She felt like this one decision would affect her entire life. This one choice was going to shape everything. And she couldn't make that kind of decision again. Not after she made the wrong one the last time.

She was interrupted from her thoughts by her boyfriend taking the bags from her hands, and putting them into her trunk. He seemed anxious about something, and she was slightly scared as to what could make Jason Rose scared. He wasn't one to be scared easily, and she was fully aware of that. She looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to say whatever he was trying to.

She had been dating him for three years, but was friends with him first. He knew that at the time, she had just come out of a really serious relationship, but he didn't seem to care. He kept asking her out daily, not being fazed one bit that she turned him down every time. It took forty-six 'no's' before she said 'yes'. And really it wasn't a 'yes' it was an 'okay, whatever, just stop asking me'. It took her a month and a half for her to accept his date. It took her three weeks after their first date to agree to go on a second one. It took her a night of crying and a call to Brooke who told her that Nathan was dating some blonde bimbo for her to say that she would go on a third. It took another year for her to sleep with him. And after he said he loved her six months later, she waited two months to say it back. And she still couldn't say it while looking into his expecting green eyes when she knew that she should be saying it to a pair of navy blue ones.

"Haley." She nodded, her eyebrows raised in a question. "Well, you know how we were talking about moving in together?" She nodded again, trying to gauge where this conversation was going, and how to break it to him that she didn't actually want to live with him. "Do you really love me?" She nodded reluctantly, and could feel the tears gathering in her big brown eyes. "Would you go with me if I went to New York?"

* * *

Well, there was the first chapter of the sequel of Best Friends for Never. I'm sorry that it had to be a cliffie, but I posted it long before I expected to, so it was kind of like a trade off. Obviously, I brought back the angst, but, frankly, I would get bored writing a fluffy Naley story.

Please Review.

-Keira


	2. Chapter 2

_I woke up in the middle of the night and I noticed my girl wasn't by my side,_

_Could have sworn I was dreamin,_

_For her I was feenin,_

_So I had to take a little ride,_

_Back tracking ova these few years,_

_Tryin' to figure out what I do to make it go bad,_

'_Cause ever since my girl left me,_

_My whole left life came crashin' _

I'm so lonely

**-Akon**

**Nathan Scott** lay across his bed drearily. He didn't know what to do or how to act. It seemed like no matter what happened that made his world darker, the sun came up the next day. And that made absolutely no sense.

He threw his basketball up into the air and caught it without thinking. Life really sucked for Nathan Scott. From the outside looking in, you would see the campus playboy with everything going for him; but what you see and what you feel when your living it are two completely different things. Seeing the guy that led Duke to four consecutive NCAA championships is one thing, but seeing the way his eyes fell when they played Stanford was a completely different thing. He played horribly the entire first half, and then he was benched for the rest of the game after the coach saw how horrible he was playing. She hadn't been there, but seeing the blue and gray of the team's jerseys made him feel sick to his stomach.

The thought of her made him sick to his stomach. It was a shame that almost everything he owned, and everyone he knew reminded him of her. Lucas reminded him of her. Brooke reminded him of her. He felt resentment towards Brooke and Lucas' relationship. They had lasted eight years, and he couldn't even make it a year and a half. They hadn't spoken since Christmas of freshman year. That was when he realized that it was over. That was when their whole relationship had changed. He hadn't accepted her calls, deleted any e-mails, ignored text-messages, and fell silent when Brooke or Lucas spoke about her. She eventually gave up, and when that happened, it hurt more than he thought it would.

The sound of a knocking on his dorm door broke him from his cathartic thoughts, and turned his attention to his half-brother. Lucas was leaning against his door-frame with the trademark Scott smirk plastered across his lips. He smiled when he saw that he had his brother's attention, and entered the room without talking, sitting on the second bed in the room, and taking the ball from Nathan's raised arms.

"Did you take the offer?" Lucas asked seriously, never taking his eyes off of the distressed leather of the basketball.

Nathan sighed and nodded his head in an affirmative, snatching his ball back, and continuing with his earlier game of throwing it up and catching it before it hit his chest.

"What's wrong with you Nate? You were a top five pick. No, you weren't just a top five pick, you were second in the entire draft, and you took two weeks to get back to the Knicks to sign your contract. That's not something that you would usually do." Nathan just rolled his eyes at his brothers concern, and didn't break his eye contact with the orange ball that kept flying above his head.

Lucas stole the ball again, this time in anger and set it in his own lap, his face set in an angry scowl, his lips nothing more than a small line. "Nathan. Get out of whatever funk you're in again, and get out of bed. We're leaving for New York in two days, and I expect you to be packed, your bags in your car, and following the car that Brooke and I will be in. You're done wallowing. Get your ass up, and out of this room before I get Bryan and Mark in here and we force you up." He stood from the bed, and bounced the ball onto the carpeted floor angrily, not even taking notice of the pitiful belly flop it did as he stepped over it and exited the room, slamming the door behind him with a reverberating _BANG_.

Nathan didn't move from his spot on his bed, staring at the popcorn-ed surface of the ceiling, his head playing a mental montage of memories he thought he had left behind years ago.

* * *

**Nathan** threw his last pair of basketball shorts into his suitcase, just as there was a light tapping on his dorm room door. He looked up into the dark brown eyes that reminded him so much of _her_. _Her_s were lighter though. Not as cold. Heather reminded him a lot of _her_; if _she_ were five inches taller, a busty blonde, and had the IQ of a rat. At first, he had been dead-set on finding someone just like _her_, but after realizing how painful that would be for him, he decided to find someone the opposite of _her_. And so far that goal had worked well for him. He had stuck to mindless encounters with the opposite sex that left them both satisfied, and hoping to never see the other again.

Heather smiled dumbly, not even bothering to care what he was thinking about, and stepped up to him, running her hands up his chest in a move that would usually intrigue and arouse him. But at that time, he just took her wrists and moved her hands from his body. He had met Heather at a party thrown by one of the thousands of fraternities on campus, and for the past three days, they had had fun, but Nathan was to his time limit. He never let his "relationships" last more than a week. And the fact that he was leaving to go approximately 1,000 miles away, he had the perfect excuse to break this 'thing' that he had with this girl.

Heather pouted as Nathan's larger hands released her wrists, placing her arms to her sides. "Look, Heather, we need to talk." She just rolled her eyes and slumped her shoulders, knowing exactly what was coming. "We had fun, but I'm leaving for New York today, and we both know that we'll never see each other again." The voice that he used was so condescending; he almost wanted to punch himself. He hated when people spoke to him like he were lesser than them, but he seemed to have been doing it to every girlfriend he had since he had come to Duke. "You still have a few semesters at RCC, and I know that we both know that this relationship wasn't going anywhere."

Heather just shrugged her shoulders and tilted her head to the side in a way she probably thought was alluring, but in all actuality made him want to roll his eyes. She looked like she was trying to crack her neck, and no matter what way you phrase that, it wasn't appealing.

"I didn't know we had a 'relationship'. I thought we just had good sex." And before Nathan could say anything else, and before he could even manage a smirk, she had disappeared back through his dorm room door, and out of his life.

He shook his head and picked up his last gym bag, slinging it over his shoulder as he walked out of his room, kicking the door shut behind him, not even looking back as he headed towards his fresh start. This was his fresh start. No memories of her would follow him anymore. Nothing could touch him anymore. He didn't have anything to associate with her but the chain around his neck. He had thrown out anything that reminded him of her. He buried pictures in his rarely-used text books, and broken everything else. He ghost wouldn't stalk him anymore. He wouldn't allow it.

"Nathan Scott, could you hurry your ass up? I want to get out of here!" Brooke Davis yelled up the dormitory steps as soon as she spotted her boyfriends half brother. She had never been a patient one, Nathan consoled himself, rolling his eyes as he kept the same pace he had been keeping previously.

"It's nice to see you too Brooke. How are you today? I'm good." He quipped sarcastically, opening the back passenger door of his large black SUV that sat at the curb.

"Don't give me that crap Boy Toy. I saw your little floozy coming down the steps. I'm not going to be late meeting Peyton just because you were getting laid." Brooke stuck out her tongue to show that she was kidding, and flew into the passenger side seat of Lucas SUV, settling herself in for a long journey, and making a silent statement to hurry up.

"I guess we better hit the road." Lucas finally spoke, pounding fists with his brother before heading over to his drivers side door.

"Whipped!" Nathan called after him, smiling as he opened his own door.

"I know!" Lucas called back, not a bit ashamed of the way his relationship worked with Brooke. If he was in love with her, then he was willing to do what she asked of him if it made her happy. Nathan had known that too awhile ago; and with the scheming that he knew Brooke to be doing; he would again.

* * *

**A.N:** I had one reviewer say that she felt sorry for Jason because Haley was dragging him along, but, come on! Do you think I would actually give Haley a _good _guy? Hell no! I want her back with Nathan as much as you guys do, and I plan on having them back together by the end of June. I'm going to try and do this story at a faster pace, but it really depends on how my life goes, and the way I've been having writers block, I'm not going to promise anything.

Please review! It really does make me write faster!

**-Keira**

P.S. It looks like I'll be going out of town for a few days starting on Tuesday, but I will probably be around a computer if I can wrangle my mom into letting me use her laptop, so I shouldn't be out of service, but I most likely won't be updating, because I have my plans and everything written on this computer. Thanks for understanding and waiting so long for this update! I love you readers and reviewers!


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Notes:** I have a few HUGE apologies to hand out. I really didn't mean to take so long, but it just happened. The last few days, I've been getting a few despite pleas for updates, and that was when I realized really how long I haven't updated, and then my original chapter three was deleted from my hard drive… I just have the most severe case of writers block I have ever suffered from, and after examining my writing, I feel like nothing sounded how I wanted it to, and like I should go back and fix everything… But I don't have time if I intend to give you guys an update any time in this century… Anyways, I'm sorry, and I hope you like this chapter, even though it isn't exactly the length or content I intended, it's more of my peace offering to ensure you guys that I am in fact still alive…

* * *

_Hey baby, is that you?  
Wow, your hair got so long  
Yeah, yeah, I love it, I really do  
'Norma Jean', ain't that the song  
We'd sing in the car  
Drivin' downtown, top down  
Making the rounds  
Checking out the bands on Doheeney Avenue  
Yeah, life throws you curves  
But you learned to swerve  
Me I swung and I missed  
And the next thing ya know  
I'm reminiscin' dreaming old dreams  
Wishing on wishes  
Like you would be back again_  
**-Rascal Flatts**

Haley stood before a green door. A faded, chipping, wooden, green door that she hoped would bring her back to a life of happiness. It was a lot to ask of a door. She knew that asking so much would ultimately disappoint her, but she couldn't help but imagine the elaborate reunion of long lost friends that would play into a long night of gabbing about what they had done since last seeing each other. She hoped for a huge hug and a smile; but she doubted she'd get any of it. Life didn't work like television shows and movies. Life didn't have to be perfect at the end of the hour. Life was shitty. Life had cliff hangers. Life threw stupid-ass curve balls like having your stupid-ass boyfriend asking if you wanted to go to the same place that you were already planning on going to get away from him… And life needed deep breaths. Yes, breathing would be good when thinking about stupid-ass Jason, because he is bigger and could throw you off if you tried to strangle him.

She brought her balled hand up from lying lank at her side so that it was positioned in a place where she could knock; though she didn't. Knocking would require courage, and she had none of that. The scene that would await her on the other side of the door could either be catastrophic or euphoric.

But that's when the worst case scenario hit her. What if Nathan were in there? Brooke had only just moved in; there was a huge possibility that Nathan and Lucas had helped her move, and were currently seated around a coffee table inside like in some old episode of FRIENDS where they were in Monica's apartment. The simple thought made her heart drop and leap at the same time.

On one hand, the thought of seeing Nathan Scott thrilled her beyond belief; while the look on his face when he saw her would be the terrifying part. She knew that he must hate her. She didn't blame him.

She tapped her knuckles against the wood as she attempted to drop her arm. She hadn't meant to do it. It was supposed to be defeat, not the beginning that she felt she didn't deserve. But the damage had been done. She could hear light footsteps on the other side of the door.

She could hear the sound of pressure against the other side of the wood as someone checked the pee-hole, and then a shrill scream. "OhMaGod!"

That was definitely Brooke Penelope Davis.

The sound of several locks being displaced were heard by Haley, the scraping of the medal wearing away at her sadness, making her realize that Brooke was standing mere feet from her. Brooke was always her splash of light. Brooke could make sense out of the most nonsense situations, and could always see the bright side. Brooke was exactly what Haley needed.

The door flew open, and before Haley could see or do anything else, a hundred pound body was on top of her, making her stumble in the embrace, and hold tighter to the body that was squishing her insides. "Brooke? Are we being robbed?" A tentative voice spoke through the empty space between it and the two girls. Peyton Sawyer emerged in the doorway holding a bat in the prelude to a swing. But when she saw the two girls, she dropped the heavy metal piece of sports equipment to the scratched wooden floor, and joined in on the hug-fest.

Haley could feel a tear fall down her cheek as she realized what was happening. Her fears of only moments before were unfounded. They were hugging her, not cursing her. (And no one was emerging from the apartment wearing basketball shorts and an amazingly accentuating wife beater.)

Brooke pushed her best friend away to arms-length, and let the tears glisten in her eyes joyously, not even bothering to wipe them away as they fell from her lightly lidded eyes. "Baby James, you're blonde!" Brooke wailed, pulling her friend back tight to her body, and drenching her shoulder in tears as Peyton stood back from the mushy moment.

"Brooke. She can't breathe." Peyton stated dryly, exhibiting her knack to state the obvious in sarcasm.

Brooke kept grinning hugely as she backed away, and swept Haley's bag from the ground where it had fallen when she had attacked her. "Sorry." Brooke ran into the apartment in a whirl wind. Haley knew that look.

Peyton gave her an odd look. Haley had always been the one to understand Brooke's odd tendencies. "We're supposed to stay here." And no doubt, ten seconds later, Brooke was flying out of the apartment again, a small device in her hands, and grabbing the hands of her two friends.

"Come on!" Brooke was insane. But it made Haley smile, which was what she had been waiting months for. Smiling seemed so foreign to her now.

But now was the time when everything seemed alright. All doubt had been rid from her body, and swept under the vintage decorative rugs that Brooke spent so much time choosing. She was in a place where she was truly happy for the first time since she could properly remember.

Brooke drug her two friends down three flights of stairs,a dn out into the early summer sun light with a look of triumph on her face. She displayed the small device she had retrieved from her room to he friends, and started typing feverishly.

Haley smiled again as she watched Brooke type up the new label for the door buzzer downstairs, she felt a full smile coming on. She lived in New York with two of tha best friends she had ever had in her whole life, and she was already beaming after not even speaking a word. Peyton and Brooke would make sure that she didn't completely wallow in self-pity, and they would make sure that she would be happy. The green door had come through for her after all, and that was more than anything she could ever ask for.

Brooke smiled her usual pearly-white dimpled smile as she stuck the sticker over the old one. It was their new start. All of them; together again.

_Davis/Sawyer/Scott._


End file.
